Ludhiana: The railway passengers are happy over the decision of railway authorities to allow the passengers to transfer confirmed ticket to their blood relations at least 24 hours before travelling time but others feel that it could be misused also.
The Station Superintendent, Ludhiana, Ashok Salaria confirming development said, “The proposal of transferring the tickets to blood relations has been cleared by the Central Railway Ministry for the passengers. This step has been taken for the convenience of the passengers.”
“If a person is holding a confirmed ticket and is unable to travel, then ticket can be transferred to his or her family members including father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, husband or wife”, he further informed.
Telling about the procedure of transferring the confirmed ticket, he said “For transfer of ticket, an application must be submitted at least 24 hours in advance of the scheduled departure of the train to chief reservation supervisor with the ID (identity proof). In terms of the government official tickets, one government official’s ticket can be transferred to the other government official. The students can transfer ticket to other students also in case of any official tour of education or sports programmes with school permission.”
A.K Sinha, a city businessman, appreciated this development of the Railways by saying that it would lessen down pressure from the minds of people who travel frequently. “We have a family business of the spare parts and we have to go for meeting to New Delhi and other parts of Punjab for meetings. Sometimes, an urgent work comes due to which I have to miss meeting. Even if we cancel the tickets then our money gets deducted. But now with this decision we can ask other family member to attend meeting by shifting the ticket to blood relation.”
However, certain railway officials on requesting anonymity said that this decision of the Railways would prove a boon for the “middlemen”. As they would book the tickets and then showing the other person as his blood relation would transfer the ticket to other persons by allegedly giving commission to railway officials involved in the transfer of the confirmed tickets to the blood relations. They also opined that this will again pump up corruption in the system.
However, the Station Superintendent, Ludhiana, Ashok Salaria said that they would transfer the ticket of passengers by checking the proper identity card and ticket along with that.